Microsoft won't say exactly how many windows 8 machines are being used

Not too long ago Microsoft was bragging that it had sold 100 million licenses for Windows 8. While the software giant was happy to say how many licenses that have sold, it's not offering any details on exactly how many of those licenses have been activated and how many copies of Windows 8 are in use. This is a question analytics firm Moor Insights & Strategy recently tackled.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead stated, "The challenge is figuring out what that [100m licenses sold] actually means. It doesn't mean that there are that many devices out the door."

According to the analytics firm, copies of Windows 8 sold to OEMs make up the bulk of the 100 million licenses sold. However, the 100 million mark excludes copies of Windows 8 sold to the enterprises as part of the volume licensing agreement.

Moorhead estimates that only 59 million Windows 8 devices are actually in use. That means that a little less than half of all of those 100 million licenses sold that Microsoft likes to brag about our sitting in a warehouse somewhere unused.

"How many Windows 8 PCs have sold and are being used?" asked Moorhead, arguing that that was a more accurate representation. "No specific news from Microsoft [on that] is bad news, because if it was good news, Microsoft would be shouting it at the top of their lungs. Instead, Microsoft is thinking they don't want to be persecuted over the number, so they're not saying anything."

Since Microsoft won’t offer specific numbers on how many computers have been activated running Windows 8, the estimate was based on data collected from analytics firm Net Applications.

Windows 8 currently accounts for 4.2% of all Windows PCs according to data collected by the company. The entire Windows ecosystem consists of 1.4 billion machines meaning that 58.6 million are likely to use Windows 8.

quote: Come on man, Steam is for gamer. We are taking about the general population here.

What exactly is your point there? That the demographic that is amongst some of the most vocally opposed to the OS has hit 12%? I would be almost certain that the general population has an even higher acceptance rate. Most non power users I've met actually kinda like Windows 8. At least the ones that haven't heard the constant babbling of "how much Windows 8 sucks"

That is incorrect, why would gamers be against win 8 ? from what I've read win 8 is just as good if not better than win 7.

The ones most vocally opposed to win 8 are the ones that prefer the Win 7 interface and these can be gamers, professionals or just about anyone, I don't think there is a specially kind of people that is opposed to win 8 besides maybe the IT professionals cause windows 8 is a mess with its mix of metro/desktop layout.

Because most PC gamers are fairly technical people and are a lot more computer literate than your average user. This tends to mean they are more likely to be power users with a higher skillset. They might not be in IT but they will tend to know their way around a PC. These are the same people who have also been using Windows for a long time because Windows is the primary PC gaming platform, which means they are more inclined to be resistant to changes in usage patterns, unlike the average consumer.

As a gamer myself I have a lot of friends who are the same. I've tried to convince them to try Windows 8 due to some of the advantages, especially things such as DirectFlip for better full-screen windowed performance. None of them want to hear it and just try to make fun of me for using it and constantly claim how much it sucks.

59M activated licenses, assuming it's correct, is a meaningless number until we can compare it with the activated licenses for Vista and 7 during a similar period after their launches. Nobody has given those numbers.

Ok I will do the work for you. Using the same statistical web survey (statcounter global stat), you can set the graph for the same period after w7 release (Nov 2009 - April 2010). After six months, W7 capture almost 10% of the OS worldwide. While in the same period in 2012-13, W8 collect a meagre 2.88%. I agree that there is other factors involved between those periods but it shows a clear picture here, an overwhelming acceptance of w7 which reach 53% of the market after 2.5 years. An active percentage is a better indication then a hard number of sold licences because of the large difference in pc numbers for the last three years.http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201211-20...http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-200911-20...